25 WAYS TO PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT WHEN YOU ARE ON A BUDGET

25 ways to protect the environment when you are on a budget

As you know, I started this blog, because I want to do something myself to help protect the environment. BUT, unless I win the lottery or pay off the mortgage and have money over, I won´t be able to do certain things, like buy a new ecofriendly car, buy only ecofriendly and bio products…

That´s why I decided to write this post on ways you can help the environment even if you are on a budget. So, what can you do?

Save energy:

1.) Go through your house/apartment and make sure, that all electrical appliances that are not needed are unplugged. Do not leave anything on standby as it is using unnecessary electric! Buy plug sockets you can switch off for your TV, computer etc., Same, don´t leave your phone, tablet etc. on charge longer than necessary, specially not over night. Apart from being a potential fire hazard, it also uses energy even though it´s fully charged.

2.) We all now use energy-saving light bulbs, but make sure lights are turned off when not needed, but do nt turn the light off, if you go back into the same room within a minute or two. I noticed that many energy-saving light bulbs don´t like to be turned on and off too frequent and therefore do not last as long as they could. This produces more unnecessary rubbish.

3.) Don´t boil the kettle again, if it just boiled a minute ago! The water is still hot enough for your tea/coffee…

4.) Your fridge: don´t leave the door open longer than needed as this let´s warmer air into it which needs to be cooled. Don´t turn your fridge colder than needed. A full fridge uses less energy than an empty fridge, but only if you don´t fill it up at one with warmer things. This does not mean: buy more food you won´t eat and then throw away, but fill it some water bottles, if it gets pretty empty… Another thing that helps keep your fridge cool and using less energy is defrosting food in the fridge. Take it out of the freezer on time and place it in the fridge. And lastly: make sure your fridge does not stand right next to the oven, nor in any other warm spot (too much sun, heater…).

5.) If you have a ceramic cooker field, turn it off before you finish cooking and use the rest-heat to finish the meal. It took me a few trials and errors years ago, but I now do it without even thinking about it anymore. One reason why I struggle cooking with gas as there is no rest heat to work with…

6.) Staying with the subject cooking: Did you know that it is actually more energy-efficient to boil the water in the kettle and then put it in the pot over the “fire”? Well, I didn´t… It was my son coming from school last week who told me!

7.) Find out if there is an energy supplier in your area using green and ecofriendly ways to supply you with energy and is competitive in price. Switching might even be cheaper than staying with your supplier, unless you are already with one of these.

8.) Let enough air into your living space. In winter, rather open your windows wide for a short period of time than not open them or leaving them open a little over a longer period of time. Fresh air heats up quicker, so you safe on heating. In summer open your windows to let a nice breeze cool the rooms instead of using the air con. Moving to a hot part of Spain, I have learned another thing for summer: our blinds are mostly closed during the day in summer to keep the rooms cool and we open them at night. Our summer curtains are thicker than our winter curtains, so we can close them instead of the blinds to keep the heat out…

9.) Most of our washing is not really dirty, so you can wash it on a short cycle and on a low temperature and they are still clean after. It does not only safe energy, but water as well and it is better for the fabric. When we had to buy a new washing machine, there were a few conditions I wanted the new one to have: obviously energy-saving, at least one short cycle and that it uses water accordingly to the load. I know you should fill the…

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